Texas de Brazil’s in. So what about the rest of Kress?

Last week, Federal Realty Investment Trust announced plans for Brazilian steakhouse Texas de Brazil to open in the street-level space at the Kress building by the end of the year. With activity finally picking back up at the Kress, I had to ask the powers that be the obvious question: What about the rest of the building? What about the upper floors? Apartments, maybe?

“The short answer is that at this point we don’t know,” said Jan Sweetnam, chief operating officer of Federal Realty’s western region. “The first thing we want to do is get Texas de Brazil operating and successful. We certainly are going to look at residential.”

In 1998, Maryland-based Federal Realty purchased a series of buildings on Houston Street with the intent of redeveloping them. A few of them are Hotel Valencia, The Vogue and the Walgreens.

“Most of the property we had was boarded up,” Sweetnam said. “We had a vision of trying to accumulate enough property so that we could redevelop it and bring (Houston Street) to life.”

The Kress is one of two properties that has not yet reached its potential. The other is the parking lot next to the Kress.

Before Texas de Brazil can move in, the building’s facade needs to be repaired. That’s what the black mesh that covers the building is for: It’s kind of falling apart. Portions of the terracotta facade are cracked. Other areas need to be stabilized. The neon sidewalk sign will be relamped and reworked to bring it up to code. And some of the windows need to be replaced and redone.

Once Texas de Brazil has moved in, most of the Kress’ store front will be devoted to the restaurant. The remaining street-level space will be the building’s lobby and a smaller entrance that leads to the basement (for a potential tenant).